In the article, “The New ‘Toy Department’” the new media of fan-based blogs that report and write about a specific team or teams within a city is discussed and compared to the standard reporters and news coverage provided by more established organizations. According to this piece, sports fans are more drawn to the new media types and these blogs have become the primary source for information on their favorite teams. The blogs may provide more in depth analysis than the average beat reporter. I tend to agree with this stance especially regarding analysis on advanced statistics in a variety of sports. Depending on the blog, the content might also be more favorable, or biased toward your favorite sports team whereas a beat reporter’s job is to remain as level-headed as possible, although there are times when that is not the case. There are also fan blogs and new media that are even more critical about their team than a beat reporter might be, which are the type of outlets I am drawn to. I like reading the blogs with content generated by fans who know when to be critical of players, management, etc.
The article mentions that sports journalists could be reluctant to be too critical of the team they cover for fear of upsetting and losing a source for information. A reason why blogs can sometimes be more critical of the team is because they don’t have much to lose. They can cover the team any way they want to without major repercussions. Both new media and old, traditional ways of covering sports push each other to provide better coverage. The competition between both outlets is healthy for journalism.
Diversity in sports journalism and the field in general is one of the major problems facing the industry as we discussed in class. The amount of white men I see covering all four major sports teams when I watch CSN Philly is not surprising, which is to say there are too many. According to the Blackstone article and a survey done in April of 2011, sports departments were found to be led exclusively by white men thus supporting my own observation.
The diversity of sports coverage understandably reflects the diversity in a specific sport. For example, we see more black reporters and analysts covering football or basketball than hockey. This affects how black athletes are portrayed in the media. Black athletes, when they make a good play, are credited with having more athletic skill and natural talent. White athletes, when making the same good play, are praised for being smart and hard-working players. This perpetuates the stereotype of the “lazy” black athlete that we in Philadelphia have seen specifically the past few years with the coverage of Phillies outfielder, Domonic Brown as compared to a player like Chase Utley. Before his breakout season, Brown was scrutinized for his “lackadaisical” defensive skills and not producing to his fullest ability. With the lack of diversity of sports journalists, black and other minority athletes are not given the same publicity and coverage as white athletes, generally.
Paper Topic: For the paper, I want to write about the Boston Marathon bombings and how sports journalists covered the attack, not only in relation to the marathon itself, but with the other Boston sports teams as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment